A Salvation that Came with a Joyful Ambassadorship

When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles … assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles. As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ.Ephesians 3:1–5 NLT Read More

How do you like the way he put in that little aside ”assuming, btw, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending grace to you Gentiles…” ? He doesn’t apologize. He adds on that if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll realize that he has some real insight into God’s plan for you in regards to Christ.
Paul knew what his calling was and he acted on it. He didn’t wait to figure it out in its fullness, though. He didn’t know it would land him in prison, get him beaten, stoned, respected, and historically justified. What he knew was that Jesus had saved him from the worst of everything, prepared for him the best of everything, and he wanted to tell others about it.
Paul told the people of Athens [26] And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, [27] that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, (ESV) Acts 17:26–27
The people that you live around might actually live there because God wants them to seek after Him. You might live near them so that you will seek after God! Paul, like an ambassador, was extending God’s grace like an invitation to the Gentiles that he met. After everything God has done for each of us, everything we’ve read in Ephesians 1 and 2, we can see that we really are His ambassadors to the people we meet. If we are ambassadors, we are representatives. Even better: we are representatives no matter how we are received.
One day I stood on a sidewalk as the president of Iran drove past me. As he was in his caravan and I was walking down the street, he had the opportunity to engage and connect with me, and I with him. My reaction to him in his motorcade made no difference about his authority, work, rule of Iran, or even his mood. He just drove by and I’m sure he didn’t even notice me.
We do not have to imagine a bunch of conflicts coming against us from the world. We have been given the special responsibility of extending God’s grace to people that haven’t received it. That doesn’t change our identity or what God has done for us. God has revealed His mysterious plan to us, and the more we share it, the more we learn about it ourselves.
We have been given salvation that is mind-blowing. Authority. Assurance. Identity. The fullness of all of it happens when we share it.
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